Card for hubby and some fab news!

Morning all,

Before I get to my card, I have some exciting news to share... I have been offered a place on the brand new Crafters' Palette design team! I'm really excited to be a part of this fab team, and there's already a couple of gorgeous projects up on the blog (that and a bio with my mug... sorry about that! ;-) )

Now then, onto card for the day.

It was hubs and mine anniversary recently, and I naturally made him a card. (I kid you not, this is our entire celebration. I make him a card, he says "thank you, happy anniversary" and continues reading the paper, lol!)

I went the grungy route for this one, as hubby isn't fond of cute and pretty... Shock! hehe...

Lots of Distress inks, lots of stencils, stamps and some spritzing with a picket fence distress marker. Twine and a rather obvious sentiment for the occasion finish it off.

I also left the inside black, while normally if I'm using a non-wite base I will decorate the inside and have a panel to write on. Instead I wrote my message in white, which I think worked well on this occasion.

Hope you're all having a lovely week!

Sammy-x

September TH tag

Hi all,

First of all, for anyone who has come to follow me recently: Yes, I do make cards! I just seem to be posting mostly tags and other non-card items this month, lol.

I thought I'd pop in and share my September Tim Tag, seeing as how I forgot to post them the last couple of months... They're often done within the first couple of days of the month, and then they sit there waiting for a break in the never-ending clouds so there's some light to photograph them by. Eventually I give up waiting for something that's never going to happen, and make do with poor lighting instead, lol.

Anyways, here 'tis:

Just in case you were wondering, this tag is actually purples with a hint of Broken China down one side. There's a touch of Scattered Straw too. (I went for softer colours than Tim, even if they aren't actually as washed-out as they seem in the photo)
The butterflies have been stamped a second time onto acetate and layered.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

Autumn again

Hi all,

Thought I'd swing by and drop off the tag I made for our your favourite season challenge at the Crafting Cafe this month.

I chose autumn for mine, not because it's actually my favourite (that would be summer, though I've been having trouble remembering what one of those is like since I moved to Leeds), but because it's my favourite "crafting" season. I just adore the warm colours and of course the browns. I do love browns! lol.

Anyways, this is what I came up with:

It's almost all Tim Holtz again, lol. DI background, blueprint stamps (these leaves look so awesome covered in Crackle paint, I think) and a TH word band. Add a little twine and some stencilling, and done!

One thing I don't like much about actual autumn however, is the incessant rain (ok, not much different from any other season there!). As I don't drive, I pretty much end up getting soaked any time I set foot outside the house, brolly or no. But that's life in Britain really, and if we didn't have the weather to talk about, whatever would we do?

Hope you all have a great (and dry!) day!

Sammy-x

Emboss it - Sweet Stampin' DT

Good morning all!

Another Saturday, another challenge over at Sweet Stampin'. And this week our theme is Emboss it.

You can heat emboss, or dry emboss, it's up to you. I chose to heat emboss, and my Vintage Photo Distress embossing powder had just arrived and was sitting on my desk begging to be used.
So I inked up a background, and heat embossed a LOTV steampunk background stamp I've had since I started stamping and never gotten 'round to using. (Hey look, more NBUS!)
I added a few more TH goodies, et voila:

It's a little hard to tell from the photo, but the embossed background looks really rusty in person. I loooove the effect!

Now my fellow Sweeties have made some fabulous cards, so I hope you'll go and take a peek, and maybe come and join us with an embossed project yourself? Just don't forget to stamp!

Have a fantastic weekend!

Sammy-x

Mixing it up!

Hi all,

Some of you may have noticed that I don't enter challenges very often any more. In fact, I think there may have been 2 or maybe 3 projects I have entered for something so far this year!
My reasons for that are simple. I don't like entering a challenge unless I have made something specifically for it. I don't have the patience to try and fit my already completed projects to as many different challenges as I can find after the fact, so simply don't bother. I know many people do, and that's fine, but it doesn't work for me.

Having said that, sometimes I am inspired by a challenge, and want to make something. And other times, while I'm thinking of what to make, I come across another challenge that inspires, and the ideas start to mingle.

This is what happened to me the other day. I realised that it was once again time for Darnell's NBUS challenge, and it being my favourite challenge in Blogland, I really wanted to play along. So I ruminated on what Never-Before-Used-Schtuff I was going to finally get around to using. While I was doing so, I followed a link posted by a friend, to find the latest challenge over at Rubber Dance Art Stamps. I was immediately drawn by the gorgeous February colours, so threw them into the mix. As the colours made me think of Ground Espresso, Aged Mahogany and Broken China Distress inks, I made the link to tags, and then I had my NBUS! You see, I had a pack of size 10 tags sitting in my Tim Holtz box that I'd never managed to get around to using - normally preferring the size 8's. Perfect.

Tag decided upon, I figured a quick trip to Tag Along was required for more inspiration, and their Think Outside the Tag challenge sounded like a lot of fun, so off that went into the creative stew in my head (less tasty than it sounds, lol)

And finally? I promised Di that I'd be coming to play at the Playground again, so snippets of some sort were going to be needed!

WOW! I didn't actually intend to write this much, but I thought I'd include my haphazard thought-process here for a giggle. Well done if you haven't fallen asleep yet!

On to my tag:

Now, I can very definitely tell you why said size 10 tags were NBUS... They're HUGE! It didn't seem like it at first, but once I started working on it, I realised I didn't have any stamps big enough, lol. So a combination of TH stamps came to the rescue.
My snippets are the two small pieces of Hessian/burlap. All that was left of my 1m square... I really hope the habby gets it back in stock, as I do so love working with it.

The acorn got a treatment of both glossy accents and sparkly spray ink, and the leaves were covered with Crackle paint (also all gone now!)

to finish it off, I added some ink-stained ribbon and twine, a couple of mini pine cones, and some of TH's remnant rubs and small talk, edged with my Sakura Clear star pen.

And now I think I have waffled at you all long enough!

Have a fantastic day!

Sammy-x

Mid-month tutorial for Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Howdy boys and girls,

It's my turn for the Mid-month tutorial over at Rhedd's Creative Spirit, and I turned a mdf box into this sewing themed one:

If you fancy taking a peek, my tutorial is up on the blog!

Hope you're all feeling less "bleugh" than I have been this past week. There appears to be allsorts going round, and they're all nice enough to share with me, lol.
But at least the kids are back at school, so there's occasional peace and quiet (when I manage to kick hubby out too! Hehe...)

Have a fabulous day all!

Sammy-x

Let's get musical - Sweet Stampin' DT

Happy Saturday folks!

And you know what Saturday means, right? Yep, a new challenge at Sweet Stampin'! And the theme this week is Let's get musical. Love it!

So, I dug through my stash and found a stamp that I'd bought with a friend's birthday in mind. It just so happens her birthday and this challenge coincided, which meant it was the perfect match. She likes bright colours, so that decided the direction I wanted to take the card in (otherwise it would likely have ended up being sheet music paper and a vintage feel, lol)

I printed the sentiment onto a piece of coordinating paper, and added some star gems to her top (there was a star there already as part of the stamp. I thought the gem made it pop a bit more.) and the corner of the card. I finished it all off with a couple of strips of piano key washi tape.

And there she is. I urge you to go take a peek at the lovely makes my fellow Sweeties have prepared for you, and then why not play along?

Hope you'll all have a fantabulous weekend!

Sammy-x

September project for Rhedd's Creative Spirit

Gooood morning bloggaroos, and welcome to September! (Really?! Where is the year going? Next people will start to throw the dreaded "C" word around!)

The end of the summer holidays are in sight! Our lot go back to school on Monday, and I have to say, I'm really looking forward to having a little time to myself! Of course, this won't happen until Wednesday, what with work and husbands and all that, but still, counting the hours! lol.

On to my September project for Rhedd's Creative Spirit.

As I have been taking on more at work, and seem to have less and less time to get everything done these days, I decided to try and make my life a little easier. So I took a plain black A5 ring binder, and made a planner!

I started by covering the binder with burlap - my favourite material. next, I took a piece of thick card (the backing card from my pack of TH burlap panels, in fact. Waste not, want not!) and put together a cover panel.
I started with using some embossing paste through a TH stencil and then began layering pictures and ephemera. a metal word band tied on with twine, and some letters to spell out "Planner" also got added, and I used my gold leafing pen (Rust-oleum. AWESOME pens. They actually make things look like gold, unlike most other things) and went around the edges, and finally added a little faux stitching here and there.

And of course I added some small talk phrases, and finally attached a keyhole/lock embellishment to the side.

That was the outside done.

To cover up the folded over pieces of burlap on the inside, I cut some pieces of TH paper to cover the inside covers. (that's a lot of "cover" for one sentence, lol)

Finally, I used some thick card and collaged some scraps of TH paper onto it, to make a cover page for the planner. The great thing about using a ring binder, is that next year I can simply remove the 2015 pages, and add new ones.

And finally, the pages themselves look like this:

They were printables I found online, which mostly suited my purposes. The other side of the sheets was left blank on purpose, so I could do some journalling too if I wanted to.

That was my project this month, but I hope you'll come play too! The theme, as always is Anything Altered Art Goes.

And I'll be back mid-month to show off another little project, along with a tutorial, so see you then!

Have an awesomesauce (that's in the Oxford dictionary now, you know!!) day!

Sammy-x